


Lying in Wait

by butterflycollective



Category: Matt Houston (TV)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Mystery, Prologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26950057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflycollective/pseuds/butterflycollective
Summary: Using these characters for entertainment onlyMatt has become more distant  after his broken enagement and CJ's out for a night on the town not knowing danger is lurking
Relationships: Matt Houston/CJ Parsons





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the A Glimmer of Twilight series. 
> 
> These events take place before Glimmer of Twilight

C.J. decided not to sit around the phone waiting for him to call.

She made that decision after she had left the office building in Century City and headed out to do some quick errands before heading on home where she would spend a couple hours finishing up some work on a couple of cases before heading out to have some fun with her friends. A new act had opened up at the club on the Sunset Strip and she had been looking forward to it all week.

Chris had flown in for the week from where she now worked in Houston with her husband, Dan who had come out to attend a seminar on technology associated with security systems. He had invited Matt to go with him but Matt had nixed that invitation preferring to spend his time brooding over his broken engagement to Elizabeth.

After all, she had just passed his empty office before heading home, and saw the chair pulled slightly out from behind his desk and the same stack of files sitting there gathering dust. His helicopter sat on the landing pad outside the suite and his collection of fancy cars remained parked undisturbed in the garage.

She had called and left messages for him several times on his cell phone and even at his house in Malibu but none of them had been returned.

This morning, she had seen his face on the society page of the daily newspaper with an attractive socialite with lightly teased hair coiffed in a bun and who clung on his arm, posing for the photographer while Matt's eyes gazed past the photographer. So he was back in circulation again, she thought, at least she knew he hadn't decided to drink himself to oblivion at home or take out one of his sports cars and wrap it around a palm tree in Beverly Hills. She knew that the decision to break it off with his latest fiancée hadn't come easily to him or even to both of them. The pain that had etched his handsome face the last time she had seen him told her that. That and the fact that she saw something else in his body language, that he appeared poised for action but for flight. Not like him at all, she ruminated over and over in her head, until she stopped herself from that useless exercise.

After all, in a way his cluelessness had helped her because she had secrets of her own. That while he had been wrapped up in a whirlwind of reunion and recommitment with Elizabeth before it all came crashing down; she had been working for the feds. But she never could have said no to their request to help them after they explained to her at a clandestine meeting in some unremarkable looking square building in West L.A. that Matt's company had been flagged by Homeland Security as a terrorist front for fundraising. It hadn't taken her long to realize that this had happened because the foundation had received several sizable donations from another foundation that had been flagged perhaps erroneously perhaps not.

She hated lying to him even though it had been purely by omission because he hadn't been around enough to be suspicious enough to ask any questions. But that was the extra work she had to do at home before she could go out and have some friends with Chris and other friends.

Still, what if he called…and then she shook her head because for one, she had her cell phone with her and also because why did she always fall in this pattern of sitting around, waiting for him to call and notice her?

She packed her cell but put it on silent and then went to get dressed, prepared to put all this drama aside for a few hours of fun.

Matt looked at the glass of Scotch dubiously. After all, he hadn't been a stranger to the alcoholic beverage certainly not in recent days. He had after all, done a lot of drinking after his engagement had been broken, because the alcohol helped him to do this thinking without really feeling. This had been exactly where he had wanted to be, away from the office, away from his coworkers and friends, most especially her.

His best friend since they were kids growing up in a ranching community in Texas.

He sighed, putting the glass down. He hadn't touched any liquor in well…24 hours now and he had no plans to drink this glass, merely to contemplate it. He hadn't really gotten drunk and he hadn't really felt hung over, he just had felt numb, waiting for the emotions that he expected to come to hit him all at once.

But they didn't.

He thought he would feel more grief about saying goodbye to the woman he purportedly loved enough to get married. What about feeling saddened, angry that his best laid plans hadn't worked out, or second guessing his decision to let her go? He didn't really feel any of that except maybe some lingering sadness.

What he felt like most of all was a failure. He felt like he had never done anything in his life, never met any challenge or pursuit that he hadn't excelled at or owned. After all, he had been this great football quarterback who had led his Rice University team to a Cotton Bowl win and himself to the Heisman Trophy which sat somewhere back at his father's estate back in Texas. He had aspired to and had become one of the world's most successful business tycoons, his company on the fast track to the Fortune 500. His face on the cover of many of the industry's magazines and even Time as one of the top up and coming success stories. He had handed off his enterprise to charity and into Murray Chase's capable hands and had flirted with investigation as a hobby and then after expanding his operations with C.J. and later Roy, had seen it grow exponentially.

But despite all these successes, Matt knew that none of them rivaled the importance of family. Trophies gathered dust, up and coming success stories became yesterday's news and companies rode out tides that ebbed and flowed with time, tiny specks of sand sharing a beach with millions just like them. But family, now that was something that endured the test of time, something that would cheat death and endure from one generation to the next.

Matt hadn't known his own father, his biological one, until just a few days before the man had been snatched away him for ever after saving his life. His adopted father had loved him like his own flesh and blood and had gone to his grave with no regrets, never knowing that Matt had learned the truth about his own parentage.

That left Matt with his uncle, the one who had been estranged with his father and his recently rediscovered cousin that both men had rescued from a hellish prison camp in a foreign country.

When Elizabeth had returned into his life, he had grabbed onto her in a way he hadn't any other woman and he still didn't understand why. She had been one on a long string of women he had relationships, serious or more casual, during his adult life. He had looked at her, had seen someone beautiful, someone vulnerable who clearly needed him. Someone who would be home waiting for him at the end of the work day.

It only came out later that she had fears of her own, of being lost in his own chaotic lifestyle and ultimately having to surrender to something potentially more destructive to their relationship than a mistress.

Had he loved her, he asked himself. He thought he really had but with the liquor finally leaving his system, he began to wonder if what he craved hadn't been this woman but what she represented, the potential for the family life that eluded him. The one success he didn't own, the one most important piece of him that was still missing. But what he had needed wasn't someone who couldn't accept him for what he was and what he did, but someone who would be the partner in all things, secure enough to have her own identity and life but wanting to build something together with him as well.

And that just wasn't Elizabeth. But was there a woman out there who would be what he sought, he just didn't know so he had stopped thinking about it and started dusting off his Rolodex and started calling women again to hit the social scene with him. Putting all thoughts of his dreams of a family with just one woman aside at least for now. But during the times he couldn't distract himself through action, his mind returned to the questions that gnawed at him.

He sighed, and reached to pick up the newspaper that he had picked up but hadn't yet read. His eyes narrowed as he read an article on page one of the Los Angeles Times about the latest missing woman. A young vibrant woman with long dark hair who had just vanished the previous night, and hadn't been seen since marking the return of the shadow of a killer.

The one who marked his victims that were found with the mark of what appeared to be a mosaic of different animals, the name of which escaped Matt.

He reached for the phone.

C.J. had left the house to head to the Sunset strip to find this club. Chris had called her saying that she would be meeting here there. The traffic had been light so she had made good time which didn't leave her too much time to sit in idling traffic ruminating over the events of the past few days since Matt's aborted wedding.

She had been thinking about her own mixed feelings that Matt's marriage had been called off, his engagement kaput. What she had felt had been sadness for him laced with an undeniable vein of relief. Then the guilt would come for having felt that relief. After all, she had once told him in what she had been so sure were their final moments on this earth that she loved him. Then months had passed where she had been burned by a murderous lover, shot by a religious cultist and had suffered a bout of amnesia which had left her trapped in a detention center in some remote town in Arizona. It hadn't been all bad because she had met and befriended two of her fellow inmates Fran and Rhonda and both of them were creating new lives for themselves in Houston. Rhonda had been in L.A. recently to tie up a few loose ends and would be heading back with Chris and Dan.

She looked over at the elegant card sitting in the seat beside her. It had been left in her mailbox this morning, just like others she had received from some mysterious person without a face. She had grown used to receiving them as it had been happening since she had been working as a public defender in Houston before coming out here to join Matt. This one had said what most of them had, that this unidentified person would be seeing her soon, scribed in elegant calligraphy. She had then found herself reflexively reaching for the newspaper and there it had been waiting, the article on the latest missing woman in L.A. who had last been seen not far from Sunset.

There had been too many of those disappearances of young woman with dark hair and only a few of them had been offered up by the ocean's tides. The others perhaps remained swallowed in its depths on two separate coasts.

She just wanted to forget all that for a little while, to forget work and the fact that she had two bosses now with one attempting to investigate the other. She wanted to forget her guilt over her feelings about the broken engagement and that she had hidden a couple things from Matt.

All that could wait, because right now she wanted to kick back and enjoy some good music with her friends without a care in the world.

"So there are no leads on this missing woman either?"

The man, Lt. Hoyt, sighed on the other end of Matt's phone call.

"Just that she was last seen partying with some friends at the Blue Moon near midnight," Hoyt said, "and said she would find a ride home."

Matt ran his hand through his hair. No doubt any Good Samaritan that had offered a young, slightly intoxicated woman a lift had been anything but in reality. Still, Matt had that unsettling feeling that he was missing something more complicated than that predicable scenario. The spate of missing women had baffled him as it had some of the LAPD's most experienced investigators not to mention two lieutenants who had been good friends of his as well. Vince Novelli had taken all his questions about the cases into retirement with him in Miami and Hoyt had inherited them when he had been reassigned to fill Vince's spot which had of course led him into a trajectory leading to a collision with Matt. They had both survived that and a lot more to become very close friends.

"Did they search the beaches?"

"Yeah, but nothing's washed up yet," Hoyt said, "and we both know most of these women never turn up at all."

Oh yeah, Matt knew that all too well. He had seen enough cases written about in the newspaper, talked about by officers he knew and he had looked at the few faces, whether family photographs or simply composites, of the women and he had seen something very familiar in all of them. Something that didn't just nag him but it filled him with jolts of what he hadn't wanted to admit was something as elemental as fear. Something primal, from so deep inside of him he couldn't even guess at its origins, but this morning, the woman's photo caught at her graduation from college had just sucked the air right out of his lungs.

From looking at a woman who was a stranger to him or was she?

Because somehow he knew her, he knew them all without having ever met them. And the fact that these instincts had no clear explanations terrified him although he would never admit it even to himself.

"I don't think she will either…"

He couldn't think of anything more to say, anything to add to the conversation that had been taking place in installments for years now. Nothing anyway that would help Hoyt or other officers solve it and find the faceless killer.

"There was one witness…a homeless woman probably drunk as a skunk who saw a woman like this leaving with two men…"

The prickling started again on the back of Matt's neck.

"Wearing Armani suits and did she hear them say anything," he asked.

Hoyt sighed again.

"No she didn't…and no way to know if they sounded foreign."

Clearly Hoyt remembered that other case from two years ago where a similar eyewitness account had surfaced of another young woman leaving with two men who sounded foreign as if they were from some Central or South American country.

That woman had been swallowed up by the earth as far as the law enforcement authorities had been concerned.

Matt said goodbye and hung up the phone, then picked up the newspaper again and looked it for a long moment before tossing it aside again.

Score one more for the silent predator who stalked and killed women, he thought, unless the police were super lucky and caught a break, a misstep in the killer's streak of murders which hadn't happened yet in over a half decade.

And inside Matt, somewhere, he felt a clock was ticking.

C.J. smiled as she walked in and saw them sitting at a table, some distance from where the band would be playing. Rhonda waved her to come on over and she did that, sitting down in a chair while Chris sipped her drink and Rhonda nibbled on some pretzels.

"So you really heading back to Houston," C.J. asked.

Rhonda nodded.

"Fran's looking for a counselor at the center and I'm thinking of going back to school."

"Really, that's a great idea…"

Rhonda shrugged.

"I'm not going to spend years becoming a fancy kickass lawyer but I might get a MSW eventually."

Chris smiled.

"Houston's a great place to do all that," she said, "It's great for other things as well."

Rhonda laughed.

"Oh there she goes rubbing it in that she's met this great guy and we haven't."

C.J. ordered a beer from the waitress.

"I haven't been looking," she said, "I'm still trying to fix my radar to better detect murderous sociopaths."

Rhonda winced.

"Oh come on, Robert was what one in a million, that's just bad luck," she said, "There's plenty of great guys out there. I mean they're not Matt…"

C.J. sighed and Chris looked at her.

"I'm not hung up on Houston," she said, "He's off somewhere recovering from his broken engagement, he's back on the social circuit and no matter what I might feel for him, he doesn't feel the same."

Rhonda tried to be helpful.

"He didn't marry Elizabeth."

"No he didn't but that was for other reasons," C.J. said, "They were too different and they couldn't reconcile those differences and fortunately they found that out before they hit the altar….well at least almost made it."

"This opens it up for you," Rhonda said, "Go on make your move."

Now C.J. began to feel the annoyance fill her again.

"No way," she said, "It's not like that between us, we're close friends and nothing more. That's how I view him and that's how he views me…"

"How do you know that," Rhonda pushed.

"Because when a guy tells a woman that he loves her while they're both hitting the sheets in your bed, that's a pretty good indication of where his feelings lie."

Rhonda's jaw dropped.

"Get out of town," she said, "He did that?"

C.J. composed herself quite nicely as experience had taught her.

"Yes he did and there were extenuating circumstances but it's just not in the cards for us and it isn't for good reasons," C.J. said, "and I don't want to discuss them here."

Rhonda's brows lifted.

"Where's Romeo anyway, still drowning his sorrows?"

C.J. took a big sip from her beer when it arrived.

"I don't know and it's not my business," she said, "It's not like we've been in touch anyway since the aborted wedding."

Chris and Rhonda looked at each other. C.J. looked at both of them, sharply.

"Are we here to rehash the cancellation of the wedding of the month or to enjoy ourselves?"

Rhonda raised her hand.

"I vote the latter and that we put the former on hold at least until the last song."

C.J. nodded deciding she could live with that. God knew she rehashed that wedding day that wasn't enough times in her head when the world around her fell silent.

The music started and they all relaxed into the beat and rhythm letting everything else fade into the background.

Not seeing the influx of newcomers into the club including the two men dressed in Armani who sat down near the bar.


	2. Chapter 2

C.J. had headed to the bathroom to freshen up because the cloying atmosphere of the bar had gotten to her. She had downed one beer and had ordered a second one but left before it had arrived. The music had been as enjoyable as anticipated but her mind remained elsewhere. The more she tried to keep it on enjoying herself and forgetting about everything else for a change, the more it wouldn't budge from a roster of topics to focus on.

She had checked her phone mostly out of habit and yes, to see if he had called and left a message or even just called.

But no calls had been recorded. So she tucked the phone back in her purse and splashed some water on her face. Alone in front of the mirror, she looked at the reflection which stared back at her. She knew she had been called beautiful by quite a few men but all her life she had focused on developing her intellectual gifts inherited from two parents she barely knew. Not that academics had come easily to her but if she put in hours of hard work…she would definitely excel and she had, being elected valedictorian in high school and graduating from two additional schools with honors.

The news about the latest missing woman disturbed her, as it always did when she picked up the newspaper or watched the news and discovered it had happened again. Not that she needed to do that to know that another one had gone missing because of the mysterious cards she received each time. At first it had been fun, because she had thought it had been her ex, Jonathan until she had brought it up in a phone call and he had been mystified about it.

So it hadn't been him and she never did find out who sent them and why, but whoever was behind it clearly knew her well because they appeared in different places where she had been at that time. And something about them, not the writing or the elaborately designed cards but something had grabbed at her…something familiar as if she had forgotten an important truth.

She fluffed her hair out around her face and let the ends drop atop her shoulders before heading back out into the main room of the club to have some fun. The hallway had been packed with people talking with each other and she wondered if the fire marshal would soon come and shut the place down. She jostled shoulders with some of those congregated but made it back to her table in one piece.

Rhonda looked up at her.

"You missed a really cool song," she said, "but it'll be on the album if it ever comes out."

Chris shook her head.

"This band's been at the hot spots in L.A. and San Francisco," she said, "I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to hear this song."

C.J. sat down in her chair and started in on her second beer. Not that she drank a lot by any stretch of the imagination. She certainly never tried to wash away her heartbreaks in booze. Her eye caught that of one of the young men sitting near the bar. He had dark hair and tanned skin, and wore an expensive suit while sitting next to a man similarly attired. She frowned, when she looked away from the man who had been looking at her.

"What is it," Chris asked.

She said nothing for a moment, and then smiled.

"So what else did I miss?"

Rhonda looked back where her own eyes had been and tilted her face.

"Those men…they don't look like…they belong here."

The same thought had passed through C.J.'s mind when she had seen them. One of them had almost smiled while the other one? She had caught some glimmer of emotion in his eye that had caught her attention. Almost as if he carried some sadness inside him. But it had only been there a split second before he switched to a poker faced expression.

Chris rolled her eyes.

"They're kind of sexy looking in a...professional hit men kind of way?"

C.J. looked at her funny.

"I was joking," Chris added, "They're probably businessmen visiting our fine city from out of town and don't realize that people dress down at clubs like this one."

"Anyway, maybe I should go over there and strike up a conversation with them," Rhonda said, "Invite them over to our table for some fun."

A sliver of apprehension sliced through C.J. at that point.

"I don't think so…"

Chris and Rhonda looked at each other.

"Hey it's a girls' night only," Rhonda said, "No guys allowed…on the count that you and I don't have any and Chris' guy is out playing with some really shiny expensive toys."

"He's out testing the latest in security equipment…but yeah you're right," Chris said, "If I were a jealous insecure woman…"

"Which you're not of course," Rhonda finished, "You've landed the greatest guy in the world and when I'm not jealous I'm actually happy for you."

Chris smiled.

"Well thanks," she said, "It's been wonderful. When I first got to Houston, I didn't feel like I'd ever belong but the people there are so nice…"

Rhonda nodded.

"I have to say that why I've struck out in the men's department," she said, "I'm making some good friends."

C.J. just listened, trying not to look at the two men sitting nearby. They seemed focused on their drinks and some conversation. But what they didn't seem to be doing was listening to the music…well maybe they showed up for other reasons than the atmosphere.

"I need to refresh my drink," she said, getting up.

Rhonda lifted a brow.

"Another beer?"

"No I'm driving so I'll stick to club soda," she said, "Be right back."

Both women watched her approach the bar as did the two men nearby.

Matt showered and got dressed, thinking maybe he'd head outside for a change and get something to eat. Hang out somewhere where there were people around, strangers in a city filled with them and without a woman on his arm. After several straight nights of hitting charity galas and parties each time with a different woman, he felt a little burned out.

He had awoken that morning, looking at a sleeping redhead next to him, thinking at first for a moment…it had been his fiancée and they had gotten married. He nearly jumped out of bed until he realized it had been Sasha who he had met at a business conference last month and had his random pick in his Rolodex had led him to her name.

They had made small talk while she had gotten dressed and had left him alone, to face another day. And he had spent the day actually doing some work, looking at some cases that had come in but he noticed soon enough that none of them really grabbed him; they all just seemed too similar to the dozens of cases he had taken and cleared before. During a time when he felt like his life needed major changes. Anything to make up for failing at marriage before even getting started, and his stomach flipping every time a pang of relief had hit him because why would failing at the most serious step he had taken in his life leave him feeling that way?

Okay, now he really had to get out of his beach house, because his skin itched and his heart raced and he had grown tired of looking at his own walls where he projected those memories that had collected inside his head.

At that time, the doorbell rang.

He walked over to see who would be visiting him because since the wedding, there had been an unspoken understanding that everyone he knew was to keep their distance from him.

He opened the door and saw Scott Prescow standing there, dressed to party. He narrowed his eyes at his friend.

"Matt, you look…like"

Matt sighed and they both went into the living room. The one he still wanted to bolt from right now but Scott's arrival had thwarted that escape.

"I'm going out for dinner," he said, "Why are you here?"

Scott didn't look offended at Matt's brusque tone.

"I'm here because I was going to the Strip because there's this new act…"

Matt put up his hand.

"I'm going to sit down in a quiet restaurant and have something to eat that's not leftovers," he said, "and then after a while, I'm coming home."

Scott looked amazed.

"You've been hitting the parties all week, from what I've read and you're skipping a chance to check out a new musical act to play someone's husband?"

Matt threw him a look.

"Sorry bad choice of words my friend," Scott said, "but this act's supposed to be great and maybe you'll meet some hot women there."

Matt thought about it, what his friend had been asking him.

"Do they serve food?"

Scott shrugged.

"I think so," he said, "Probably appetizers at least."

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad way to spend an evening, certainly better than staying at the beach house. Scott had been Matt's friend, his and C.J.'s since all three of them had gone to college with Julia who had been Scott's on and off girlfriend. Scott had been bumming around the world for the past couple of years and had dropped a card asking if there had been an opening at Matt's company and Matt of course had offered him a job as a chief accountant and legal counsel taking advantage of both of his degrees.

C.J. hadn't seem nearly as enthusiastic to see Scott as Matt had been but then she'd been so busy in recent months working on a variety of projects that she probably was feeling a bit worn out. He had meant to tell her to take some time off, to go on a vacation some place but then his life had been turned upside down itself in recent days.

Matt grabbed his wallet and looked at Scott.

"Okay let's go…."

They both left the beach house to head in their separate cars after Scott hinted that he might be looking for some lady action.

C.J. walked to the bar to buy her club soda, carefully navigating through the pockets of people standing around talking and drinking, while the band took an intermission. She reached the bar and ordered her drink and noticed that she was standing next to one of the men she had seen earlier. He had short hair and a small scar on his head. The Armani suit molded to his body quite nicely and she gathered that his body had been hardened by his profession and not recreational exercise. So no, this guy wasn't a businessman, at least not the run of the mill variety.

What he was, she didn't dwell on because she wasn't planning on talking to him. That's when he turned around slightly and his arm lightly brushed hers before his face reacted to seeing her right there.

"I saw you sitting over there with those two women…"

She gazed at him directly.

"I know…"

If he had any tendency to be self-conscious at being caught at it, he didn't show it. He grasped his Scotch glass in a hand with strong but elegantly tapered fingers.

"You come here often?"

She caught the hint of a clipped accent that he tried to smooth over when he spoke. Nothing that she recognized as familiar.

"That's a really familiar line," she responded.

He smiled then and she saw the lines appear around his eyes but somehow the smile didn't reach them. His eyes were dark pools of ink with a hint of calculation to them which left her with the impression that they didn't miss very much.

"I'm sorry…I'm not from here."

"I can see that," she said, "You here on business?"

He paused and then nodded.

"Yes…but we're getting ready to wrap things up," he said, "My colleague and I, we travel a lot."

She digested that information.

"What do you do," the man asked, "You work…in business?"

"Law…"

He nodded.

"Yes, the two are an uneasy merger," he noted, "I do neither. I just do what I'm told to do and go where I'm told to go."

"So you're a company man?"

He looked at her thoughtfully and she wondered if he understood.

"I'm working in security…"

Her eyes lightened a bit.

"I have a friend who does that," she said, "He's in town for a seminar for people in that field. Is that why you're here?

The man hesitated but his eyes never lost their intensity.

"No…we already have everything that we need," he said, "We're coming here to check out the…music."

Strange, she didn't have that impression at all. If anything, her investigative background led her to believe that he and his friend were casing the place. But neither looked like thieves.

"I see…well I hope you enjoy your stay in L.A…"

She began to leave but felt him grab her arm.

"Would you like to talk awhile…?"

She looked back at her friends, then back at him shaking her head.

"I came here with some friends," she said, "and I should get back to them…nice to meet you…"

She moved back towards her seat and both women hit her for information before she sat down again.

"Okay spill," Rhonda ordered, "What's he like, will you be leaving with him later?"

Chris looked at her annoyed.

"Come on, she just met him," she said, "C.J.'s not the type who'd throw caution in the wind like that."

No, she wasn't, C.J. agreed, but she looked over at the man again. That's not the kind of vibe she had picked up from him during her conversation but what she did sense…she didn't quite understand. He was interested in her but not the way that men usually were in women in a place like this one.

"We just talked a few minutes…about the music," she said, "He and his friend are businessmen from out of town."

Rhonda shook her head.

"We already guessed that part," she said, "but is he has hot looking as he seems, up close?"

"He's very handsome," C.J. said, "and yeah, his body is very…fit."

Rhonda squealed.

"Oh I've just got to go over and introduce myself."

But she didn't get very far because C.J. shook her head.

"No…don't…"

"You want another shot at him," Rhonda said, "Well that's cool…"

"No…I just don't think that's why he's here."

She didn't want to think about it or him anymore so she focused on the activity around her, so she could lose herself once again.

Matt turned off of Sunset to park his car in a small lot next to the club. He saw Scott standing next to his own car and he walked up to him.

"I thought you got lost."

"Traffic…so are we going to head inside and see what's there?"

Scott smiled.

"I saw this nice looking blond walking in alone," he said, "So I might leave you at the door."

Matt hardly cared because he wanted to hit the food first to fill his growling stomach and then think about music. As for women, his hiatus would remain in place unless something especially promising appeared.

They entered the club and Matt watched Scott frown almost immediately.

"Damn…guess who's here?"

Matt saw the three women sitting at the table.

"C.J…she didn't tell me anything but then we haven't talked in a while."

Scott looked at Matt.

"Want to go to another club?"

Matt shook his head, looking at C.J. sitting there, her hair loose and wearing a new pair of jeans and a nicely cut blouse, which put her nicely toned arms on display. She wore a couple loose bracelets and a necklace he had given to her years ago.

"Houston…good to see you out and about."

He saw the hint of surprise in her eyes but her voice welcomed him. She made room for him to sit with her and then she saw Scott. The expression on her face changed markedly, Matt noted, and his eyes sought her own for some explanation but she just blew that off.

"Scott…saw you earlier today."

He nodded.

"C.J…"

Matt watched the interplay between them and as always, it puzzled him.

"I'll get some drinks at the bar," Scott said.

"Just a club soda for me," Matt said, "I'm giving my liver the night off."

He watched Scott approach the bar and sat down next to C.J. who looked him over.

"You feel okay?"

"Just fine…I wanted to come out and check out this club," he said, "I had no idea you would be here but I'm glad I ran into you."

Rhonda piped up.

"Matt, so you're not playing the recluse anymore," she said, "I'm sorry about the wedding…"

His mouth wore a thin line.

"I'd rather not think about it right now."

She nodded.

"Gotcha…well C.J. here was chatting up some guy at the bar over there."

Matt looked over and saw the two men.

"They look like they wandered into the wrong club…"

Rhonda shrugged.

"Their field is security," C.J. said, "but I only talked to one of them for a couple of minutes."

Matt scrutinized them.

"They still look lost."

Rhonda smiled at him.

"Well, you're found and you're in the right place because this is a great musical scene."

"So I've heard…"

"And it's a good chance for us to get together before Chris and I head back to life in Houston," Rhonda continued.

Matt looked over at C.J. and caught the wistful look in her eyes. Sometimes he looked at her and thought that she looked as restless as he often felt. During the slower moments this week, he had flirted with the idea of just packing up a bag and taking off to just go anywhere and be anyone else, a faceless person, at least for a little while until he figured out what he lacked.

But responsibility nagged at him…he had to head back to the office, to catch up on his caseload, sign a stack of paperwork that Murray had stopped calling him about and to return phone calls. So every time he thought about splitting, his obligations as a businessman and private investigator brought him down to earth.

"Well I might have taken that week off but I have that new assignment…"

Matt blinked and noticed that C.J. had just said something about taking off.

"Why don't you just take that time C.J. and have some fun away from here?"

She looked at him oddly.

"Houston, you know that's not an option," she said, "I've got a ton of work to do and cases to prepare and that assignment…"

Oh yeah, the one that she had been given that he had no recollection of happening.

"I'll be back in the office tomorrow…"

"Oh Houston, take the time that you need," C.J. said, "We're handling everything just fine."

He looked at her and believed it, because here sat the most intelligent, most capable woman he had ever met anywhere. She had shown signs of what she would become when he first met her when both were 10 and she had just blossomed into that as the years passed. But damn it if she weren't the most spirited woman he had ever crossed paths of, and it didn't hurt that she was so beautiful.

But then if she knew he noticed her looks, she might lecture him about wanting to be known for her intellectual skills and not her measurements. Still, he sometimes wondered…what it would be like to be able to well focus on both for a change and then he remembered the boundaries that they had both set for themselves and had nearly breached oh, more than a few times. But there were just moments when she did or said something or the way she looked at him that were just impossible to resist.

But why think that way about her one week after breaking up with the woman he had loved enough to marry, only had it been that kind of love? He watched as Scott returned with the Scotch and club soda and he almost reached for the Scotch.

"Those two men over there," Matt said, while sipping his soda gingerly.

"Oh they just asked me if I knew when the record album was coming out,"Scott said blithely," How I would know anyway."

Matt looked over at the two men conversing. Two men dressed in Armani suits that looked out of place in the casual style club and then a thought struck his mind, about what the homeless woman had told the police. No, no, his mind was really reaching and he needed to stop thinking about the mystery that might never be solved.

C.J. watched him, knowing that the man she loved remained deeply troubled despite his attempts to hide it. So she decided to do something about it to bring him out of his own abyss as the night closed in on them.

For indeed inside the mind of another man unseen, a clock indeed was ticking.


	3. Chapter 3

C.J. downed her soda and Matt had finished his own drink, both of them deep into their own thoughts. Matt felt the restlessness grab him again and he eyed the door, but he didn't leave his seat. He told himself that running wouldn't accomplish anything as he did often these days to keep him in one place. But the images of his aborted wedding held him captive during the moments when the world slowed down around him.

And that's when he felt the most lost. As if he were wandering in some jungle some place trying to find a trail that had been buried beneath layers of tropical plants and vines that snaked all around him, as carefully placed snares to grab hold of him.

Elizabeth had gone back to Ireland for a while to visit some relatives, the same ones who had just shaken their heads in dismay that she had left the country to marry the millionaire cowboy thousands of miles and an ocean away. He hadn't talked to her since as if they had an unspoken understanding that goodbye meant forever, the ties that had bound them severed completely. Matt wondered why that thought didn't bother him as much as it should have, but that what got him was that he had failed at what the other men in his family had excelled at which was marriages where love had been the foundation that had grown stronger over time as they built their homes on top of it.

His father had lost his wife too soon, not long after Matt's own birth and Roy had lost his Flo before she knew the truth that her beloved son, Will still lived waiting to be found. But Matt hadn't yet mastered relationships as he had most other areas in his life and hitting 30 several months ago, really made him feel that keenly.

He had thought Elizabeth had been it when she had returned back into his life. But he realized he had grabbed onto her too quickly as if she would slip away. She had joked about it and in truth, she had wanted to marry him until the reality of his life slapped against her hard like a rogue wave breaking onshore. Only while her eyes smarted from the sudden blow, her heart had broken when Matt admitted that he couldn't give up the life that threatened to smother them both in an embrace so tight she knew their marriage couldn't survive.

And so they had said goodbye.

C.J. had been there when he had needed her, taking him to dinner as he had done not long after her ex boyfriend Robert had been hauled off to jail. But he hadn't mended on the timeline he had set for himself, which frustrated him.

So he started pushing his family and friends away. C.J. had sensed that he needed his space so she had given it to him. She hadn't known about the bag that sat waiting to be packed up on a moment's notice when the urge to leave became too strong to resist.

But she sat across from him, sipping her own soda slowly while looking over at the band that played a roster of songs that people responded to by clapping and whistling at points.

She looked over at him right now and read the tension on his face, the rigid way he sat in his chair and inside, she sighed. She wanted to say something but kept quiet instead, anything she might say to herself. Not knowing how he would respond back to her, so she just looked out into the crowd of people.

"I think I need some excitement," Scott said suddenly.

C.J. just looked over at him.

"Nothing stopping you from finding it."

He raised his brows at her.

"What about you," he asked, "What do you want?"

"Nothing that you have," she answered simply, "I think I'll get some fresh air."

Matt watched her get up and leave, frowning suddenly. Even in his mood, he picked up the tension in her voice and he wondered why he had missed it.

"C.J…"

She just looked at him and walked away from the both of them. Scott shook his head after she left.

"Well Matt I can see that my fan club is minus one member," he said, "I think she's jealous…"

Matt narrowed his eyes a bit.

"Jealous of what," he asked.

Scott shrugged.

"Of the ease of my integration into the operations of the company," he said, "How much I've elevated myself into a leadership position."

"C.J.'s not really connected with Houston Enterprises," Matt said, "She's spending her time working for the investigations firm."

Scott smiled.

"She's working on some project with Murray," he said, "Pretty hush hush as it looks."

Matt frowned. He had noticed that she had spent later nights at the office and when he had asked her about it before the wedding; she had told him she had promised to help Murray with an accounting project.

And that had actually started months earlier, when she began to withdraw from working with him on investigations and he had been working more with Roy.

"She spends a lot of time on the phone too late at night," Scott continued, "Pretty odd but then the old gal doesn't really have much of a social life."

Matt shot him a look.

"What is it that you have against her Scott," he said, "because it sounds like you're the one feeling threatened here?"

Scott knew when to retreat.

"Okay, okay I didn't mean anything by that," He said, "but you know what they say about all work…"

Matt knew indeed and that held true for the opposite too but he had noticed a change in his best friend in the past several months but had been too busy to address it or even ask her what was going on.

"She's been really busy."

That was all he could really say because he hadn't been all that focused lately either. He hadn't even seen her in some days and when he did…all he had seen had been this beautiful woman who had seemed happy enough chatting with her close friends. The same woman who…no he couldn't remember what she had told him before his aborted wedding about being jealous of him or of Elizabeth. And what he said, he couldn't really even remember. Some platitudes probably but he had been too wrapped up in the whole idea of being married to Elizabeth in a matter of hours.

"I wonder if that's really it Matt," Scott said, "You know I hate to be the one to tell you this but I think her recent behavior's very suspicious."

"Suspicious, how?"

"Those late night conversations on the phone with unknown parties," Scott said, "and she's been spending a lot of time reading financial ledgers and making copies of them…herself."

"So what?"

"Matt, you hire more than enough people to do all that kind of menial work," Scott reasoned, "Why would a woman who graduated from one of the top law schools in the country do her own copying?"

Matt grew impatient.

"Scott, what are you getting at here," he said, "Do you think she's doing something underhanded?"

Scott stammered.

"Well…"

Matt didn't let him finish.

"That's ludicrous," he said, "I can't even believe that you're suggesting it."

Scott took a deep breath.

"Matt I would hate to believe it were true but you have to admit, something's going on here that she's not telling us."

Maybe that might be true, Matt thought, but he knew C.J. most of his life and she would never do anything to betray or harm him. She had taken a bullet for him and then kept quiet about it as long as she could before the pain became too much and then she wanted him to run into a burning building to get evidence instead of taking her to the hospital.

No, his best friend would never do anything like that. Scott had to be acting on suspicions that were baseless.

"I'm not going to listen to this anymore," he said, "I know she would never engage in any betrayal."

Scott sighed but he remained silent, sipping his drink. Matt studied him wondering if C.J.'s dislike of him that had become more noticeable had a reason to it. He had tried to bring it up before and she refused to say anything about it.

This left him even more puzzled that he had missed something.

C.J. stood outside in the warm air, looking out at the traffic traveling briskly down Sunset Blvd. She had really needed to get away from Scott who she just didn't want to be around since… Years ago, they had all been close friends who hung out at college together. Everything had been much better then until she, Scott and Julia had split off from Matt to go to Harvard School of Law and she had kept her distance from Matt's buddy since the night of the fire.

The night that she had first seen him, no she couldn't go down that path again. She had after all closed the book on it forever. The man who had faded in her memory leaving only a shadow, his voice a whisper in her ear at night. Whenever he tried to push through the barrier she had put around him, she pushed back.

And then she heard footsteps behind her and she nearly flinched.

"It's just me," a masculine voice said.

She looked to see that it was the older of the two men in Armani suits. He had dark curly hair and a mustache. He appeared someone harder than his companion she had spoken with earlier.

"Who are you?"

He smiled but somehow his eyes remained cold. She doubted that anything warmed him even a hot day. His accent seemed somewhat familiar.

"My name is Cortez," he said, "and yours is…"

She paused, studying him. He appeared more muscular and slightly shorter than his colleague and had hints of grey in his hair.

"I'm C.J.," she said, "I'm here with my friends."

He nodded.

"You're very beautiful," Cortez said, "but I imagine you hear that a lot."

She almost answered in the way he expected but something stopped her.

"Actually I've never really thought about it."

"Well you should," he continued, "I saw you with the men sitting at your table, is one of them with you?"

She tilted her head.

"Would it matter if that were the case?"

He smiled wilder and this time she did see a trace in his dark eyes.

"Somehow I don't believe that's the case," he said, "I think you work with them."

She narrowed her eyes.

"You're very observant," she said, "What else can you figure out?"

He rubbed his chin.

"Let's see you've been educated in the very best schools," he said, "and you've risen through the ranks in the business world as well. But something's missing that you can't find…"

She smiled at him.

"Okay is this a come on line," she said, "Because if it is, I have to admit it's a new one."

"Why would you think that," he asked, "Unless you were interested?"

She looked at him a moment then shook her head.

"No what I'm thinking is that maybe it's time to rejoin my friends," she said, "Nice to meet you…Cortez."

She started to walk away and then saw Matt approach her and look at the both of them.

"C.J. are you okay," Matt asked.

She looked at him, seeing concern on his face and she nodded.

"I'm fine Houston," she said, "I was just talking to Cortez here. He and another gentleman are here on business…in security."

Matt looked at him.

"What area of specialty," he asked, curious.

The man smiled.

"Different specialties," he said, "personal bodyguard services…security details…systems technology…"

Matt folded his arms.

"So you were here for the seminar then," he said, "Drew in professionals from all over the world."

The man shook his head.

"We've been too busy on business," he said, "But we hoped to check it out before we depart."

C.J. looked at the both of them.

"I'm heading inside," she said, "I'll see you later."

"C.J…"

He watched her leaving. So did Cortez.

"She's a very beautiful woman," Cortez said, "but she must be a handful for a man."

Matt narrowed his eyes.

"Excuse me?"

The man simply smiled.

"It's been nice talking with you," he said, before walking back inside.

Matt just watched him leave shaking his head, if that man came on to his best friend like she needed to be handled, he would find out quickly enough how wrong he would be in that assessment.

C.J. sat down at the table. Rhonda and Chris looked at her.

"So…where'd you go," Rhonda asked.

"Outside for some air like I said," C.J. said, "but I met Cortez…"

Both women looked at her.

"Who," both said.

"Cortez, he's one of the men in the Armani suit," C.J. said, "The older one….he just sat down."

Rhonda's eyes widened.

"Wow…I'd like to get me some of that."

Chris rolled her eyes.

"Rein in your hormones girl before you head on over there or you'll scare him off."

Somehow C.J. didn't think that Cortez could be scared of anything much. She sipped her club soda which had flattened.

"Where's Scott?"

Rhonda made a face.

"Chasing after some poor blond the last time that I saw him," she said, "I think he left to go with her."

Chris shook her head.

"No…they're over there getting cozy near the bathrooms."

C.J. knew that Scott had always fancied himself a ladies' man even when he had been in a committed relationship with a woman like her close friend Julia. But since he had come to L.A. to work for Matt, she had seen him with a string of women at different places but if he had relationships, he kept them discreet. Then again, she hadn't trusted the guy since he had nearly gotten her killed along with Julia and Jonathan, then pulled a disappearing act for over a week.

Matt still liked and trusted his college buddy and C.J. wished she had told him the truth about what Scott had been doing in Boston years before but she just hadn't done it. To do that would be to tell Matt the whole story and she didn't want him to know what she had done…almost had done to get her and her friends released from a group of drug dealers. Including the one…no she didn't want to think about him. What had happened in Boston had to stay there, packed away with the rest of her memories of law school.

"I might go chat up that guy," Rhonda said.

Suddenly C.J. felt a sliver of ice go through her.

"No…don't," she said, "they seem polite enough but there's something about them…"

Rhonda snorted.

"Oh come on, they're sexy as all get out and I need some," she said, "When's the last time you got any?"

C.J. just sighed. Since Robert, she had kept herself too busy for relationships and she just wasn't the casual type to just hop into the sack with someone she had just met. Not that she had never been tempted, but no she just wasn't wired that way.

"Rhonda I don't think it's a good idea," she said, "They're only in town for a little while…"

Her friend smiled.

"That's why it's perfect," she said, "We'll meet up, have some fun and then go our separate ways."

C.J. watched her friend start to get up from her chair.

"Please don't…"

Rhonda looked at her puzzled.

"Why?"

C.J. bit her lip.

"I don't know why…We don't know who they are really…"

Rhonda folded her arms.

"Is this really what it's about or do you want one for yourself," she said, "because we could each have one and just decide which one here and if it's the same one…flip a coin."

Damn, how could Rhonda be so casual about such a thing?

"No…I was thinking about those women who disappeared," she said, "One just turned up missing from a club down the street."

Rhonda scoffed.

"Those men probably weren't in town when that happened."

"Maybe…but this city's just not the safest place for women."

Rhonda heard the concern laced in C.J.'s voice and finally relented, sinking in her seat though her eyes remained focused on the men.

"Well okay…it's girls' night anyway," she said "I guess we're all going to go home alone and unfulfilled."

Chris cleared her throat and Rhonda threw her a look.

"Well, almost all of us," she said, "Except those who are playing hooky on their men."

Chris looked unapologetic.

"Hey, I'll make it up to him later."

The other two had no doubt about that. Matt joined them at the table and Rhonda just rolled her eyes.

"What's going on," he asked.

"Oh C.J. and I contemplated each getting ourselves one of those hot guys sitting over there…"

Matt looked over at the men and looked at C.J.

"You just met them…"

C.J. grew irritated.

"Houston…you just met the girl you probably woke up this morning last night at the party…"

He looked chagrined because she had nailed it. Still the idea of her getting together with one of those men when she barely knew them when women were disappearing in L.A., it just unsettled him.

Scott and his blond friend stepped outside of the storage closet and readjusted their clothes.

"You have lipstick on you," she pointed out.

He absently wiped it away and then smiled at her.

"So how was it?"

She just shook her head at him and walked away. He looked up and he saw the two men in Armani suits approach him and he swallowed noisily.


	4. Chapter 4

Scott looked up at the two men.

"Oh it's you…"

The two men looked at each other and then at him.

"Do we know you?"

Scott frowned at them, losing patience.

"You saw her here tonight," he said, "The brunette, what do you think?"

One of them tilted his head.

"Excuse me but who are you?"

Scott folded his arms.

"Don't play that game with me," he said, "I just phoned him this afternoon and he told me that you had been in town…we saw each other in Sao Paulo."

The man shook his head.

"You must have us mistaken for someone else," he said, "Excuse us."

"Wait…"

They turned and looked at him.

"I know why you're here," Scott started, "The woman…you're not going to do anything here?"

They looked at him silently.

"The man that's here with me," Scott said, "He'll never let you get away if you try it here."

"Get away where," the older man asked.

"You know…"

"Do we?"

"She's two steps away from finding out about this operation with Houston Enterprises," Scott said, "She can't find out the truth but you can't do it now."

"Go on…what you say…interests us," the man said.

"Amuses me," said the younger one, "Continue…"

"You have to wait until Matt is…distracted," Scott said, "and he can't do anything to stop you in time."

"Okay…"

"Just wait a little while longer," Scott continued, "Matt…he's about to bolt, I know it, he's jumping out of his skin the longer he stays here, a little push from the right direction and when he takes off…"

The older man smiled.

"This is when in your plan of yours, we make our move," he said, "but we don't take orders from you, only from our boss and he's waited a long time to jeopardize his plans now on the ramblings of one of his bottom feeder staff."

Scott back peddled.

"Well of course," he said, "I wouldn't think of telling you how to do your job."

The older man nodded.

"Good, because you're just a desk man," he said, "and you need to go find one, sit down and let us do our job."

Scott saw the look in their eyes and he just nodded.

"Then do it," he said, "because I'm really getting tired of the bitch."

He left them and the two men watched him go silently.

"How long do you think the boss will let him live," the younger one said.

Cortez shrugged.

"As long as he needs to use him and not one second more…"

Matt looked over at her, as she sat there thoughtfully, her chin on her hand. The rest of her drink remained untouched. She looked tired, but it didn't mar her beauty, he knew she had been working very hard while he had been away doing other things to escape. She looked at him thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry about that Houston…"

"Sorry about what?"

"For what I just said," she said, "It's not my place to pry."

He fingered his glass.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about," he said, "I shouldn't have said what I did."

She shook her head.

"No you were right," she said, "I don't know those men very well and I told Rhonda not to go over there."

"Why?"

She just looked at her hands.

"I don't know, they make me nervous…"

He looked at her.

"Did anything happen…"

She shook her head again.

"No, it's just me," she said, "I guess it's all those women who've disappeared, the women who…"

She didn't have to say it for him to finish the rest. The women who looked like her, young vibrant women with dark hair, who smiled in their photographs.

"You're thinking it's someone who knows you?"

"No, no it couldn't be," she said, "I'm just a common type that's all."

He smiled.

"You common," he said, "Hardly, there's no other woman out there like you."

She smiled back at him, her eyes warm.

"Careful, I might think you're using a line on me."

He grew serious because something she just said…no his feelings about so many things had been complicated lately including her. Because he had been thinking a lot about the night she said she had loved him and he hadn't really answered back.

But they had both moved on from that to other relationships as if there were some tacit understanding to let it go.

She turned her head to look for her two friends who had gone off to go talk to some people they recognized. They sensed she needed time with her best friend.

"I missed you.

She looked up at him in surprise when she heard those words from him. He hadn't been around and she really didn't know what he had been thinking about or even where he had been these past several days. She reached out her hand towards him and he held it in both of his own.

"Houston, it's all going to work out," she said, "You just need some time to work this through."

He sighed.

"I'm not sure what's holding me back," he said, "I loved Elizabeth but I don't think this is all about her, I think it's about who I am."

She tilted her face, as if she knew.

"You're this amazing man who's helped so many people and who's the best friend a woman could have," she said, "and you're kind of cute...maybe that's not the right word."

"I feel adrift," he said, "I had this life all planned out where I would get married and have a home and someday a family."

She heard the yearning in his voice, knowing how much that mattered to him, even more since his father had passed. He had Roy and his cousin Will but he needed more, he needed a wife and children. But she knew he'd find both in time, it just wasn't going to be right now.

"Houston…this sounds cliché but you'll meet someone…"

"I thought I did," he said, "and it wasn't here, it was me and what I do every day. I put myself in jeopardy, I don't always come home at night and there might be a day that comes when I don't return home at all."

She couldn't respond to that readily because she knew he spoke the truth. That could happen to either one of them at any time. Working as investigators carried a lot of risks along with its rewards and one of them was severe or death, and they had both skirted death.

"Houston…it's like that for all of us out there living our lives to the fullest," she said, "So we have no regrets."

But Matt did have them and worse, he couldn't pinpoint exactly what they were. Not getting married…was that one of them? He didn't know…because he did understand that no matter how much he and Elizabeth would have tried, it never would have worked. And then they would have both reached the day when they would have stopped trying. But then he would think, could he make it work with anyone? Oh, many people who knew him would never suspect he asked these questions because they looked at him and saw a millionaire playboy out to have fun.

"When I found out about Robert…"

Matt looked up to listen to her continue speaking.

"That was one of the hardest things I ever had to do," he said, "because I knew how much you loved him."

She looked at her glass.

"I don't know…I think I fell for him too fast for it really to be love," she said, "I think that takes more time to develop than just six weeks."

C.J. had stared at him in hurt and disbelief when he had told her his suspicions about Robert and after they had words, she had walked away from him. But after a restless night, she had returned because she knew that he would never hurt her unless to protect her from greater pain. And if she had stayed with Robert…she didn't want to think about that. It had been bad enough disguising herself as a woman out to blackmail him and learning the truth herself.

Matt had apprehended him, the police had shown up to take him to jail and she had just stood there in shock, thinking she really knew how to pick them.

"He wrote me a couple times…but when I saw the return address…"

She hadn't opened the envelopes but one and he had just written her to worm his way back into her life as any self-respecting sociopath would do.

"I guess we've both had our share of loss haven't we," she said, "but there have been a lot of great times too."

He nodded at that, because it couldn't be denied. She took a deep breath and released it, and he saw the tension in her face fall away.

"So what do you want counselor?"

She smiled at the question and she really thought about it.

"I don't know…to keep working on investigations with you, do more traveling, maybe buy some land somewhere…"

"What about settling down?"

She rubbed her forehead.

"Sure…some day when things get a little less exciting," she said, "but yeah somewhere in that future, I would love to meet some some nice guy and have a family too. I never knew my parents so I don't know what kind of mother I would be…"

"You'd be wonderful at it," he said, "You've been so great with Butterfly."

The teenager had just spent a week staying with C.J. and she had the younger girl working out in the garden on the flowers which Butterfly seemed to really enjoy and help her at the office. He could see that clearly without having been there. The two of them dressed in old jeans and shirts planting new flowers and maybe an herb here or there.

He could even see her with her arms around some guy he didn't want to put a face on watching their children play in a yard, maybe the ranch that she had often dreamed of, because of where she had grown up back in Texas. They had both expressed dreams of having parcels of kids to make up for them both being only children.

"Houston, I know that you want a family of your own someday especially since Bill passed," she said, "and you'll have that, a wonderful man like you, what woman could resist?"

He studied her face, listened to the conviction in her voice and for a moment, he almost believed her.

"It's just not time yet…"

Maybe, he thought but he had been thinking about it a lot lately even though he was relatively young, about not being as content with the playboy life, of not wanting to go home to an empty house. Right now if he'd gotten married…no point in rehashing what hadn't been and wouldn't be. An image of an island filled his mind, swallowed up in jungle and surrounded by the bluest of seas. And he had remembered a promise he had made to Too-Mean right before his friend had died.

Another person on a list he had been unable to save.

Then he looked at C.J. and he saw her in a different way, as he did since she had told him that she loved him. Together in a way they had never been and surrounded by children with his hair and her eyes. His heart pounded because of all the visions that passed through his mind in the past week, that had been both the most exhilarating.

And the scariest.

He cleared his throat as he often did simply to switch his chain of thought and she looked at him.

"What's wrong?"

He shook his head and sipped his drink.

"Oh nothing…"

Then silence followed again. She leaned back in her hair and closed her eyes and he wondered what she saw. The glitter of the studs in her ears caught his eye and the fullness of her mouth. He had always known that the coltish teenage girl he had known so long would grow into her beauty and she had done just that. When she had walked into his office after her stint in Houston as a public defender for a job interview, he had been blown away not just by her smarts but how her clothes just seemed to…well fit her frame. He had never regretted hiring her, not for a moment, and she had been just as dedicated to their work, covering up an inflamed appendix that arose during her bar exam until it had ruptured.

But as well as he knew her, he thought he knew her, a cloud remained in her life even as it flourished with the passage of time. Darkness broke up the light in her eyes especially when another woman had vanished off an L.A. street.

Rhonda and Chris returned to the table and sat down without ceremony.

"Man, that musician just rocks," Rhonda exclaimed.

Chris rolled her eyes.

"She even asked for his number to get together for drinks the next time he's in town," she said, "He's the lead guitarist."

C.J. looked over at the band and saw a tall guy with a beard and an earring.

"He's certainly talented."

Rhonda smiled.

"Oh he can strum me anytime," she said, "He's got to have a great touch judging how he plays that guitar."

C.J. listened and thought that she had never been able to do what Rhonda had just done, go over and get a phone number from some guy she had just chatted up for a few minutes. Most of her relationships with men had been with people she had met through her work or old friends who had returned into her life and this time, a spark between them.

Chris frowned.

"You're awful Rhonda," she said, "You need to find a nice boy."

Rhonda harrumphed.

"Nice guys are boring," she said, "I like that edge of danger in the truly hot bad boy…like those Armani guys."

Chris just shook her head.

"But the only woman they seem interested is her," Rhonda continued. '

Meaning C.J.

"I just talked to both of them for a couple of minutes," she said, "and I'm not interested."

Matt didn't know why he felt relief at her words, no reason to really because she was her own woman who decided to live her life as she saw fit.

But he looked over at where the men still sat anyway.


	5. Chapter 5

They walked to the parking lot when the club had been about to close its doors for the night. Side by side, a comfortable silence between them. The day's heat had finally subsided and the air felt cool, a soft breeze rustled some debris on the ground in the parking lot.

It hadn't begun to thin out as most of the patrons had remained inside to buy that last drink, grab that last chance to chat with friends or exchange phone numbers before leaving alone or together. Matt and C.J. had said goodbye to Chris and Rhonda who had taken off because they had plans to go to Catalina Island the next day on the morning ferry for a day of sightseeing.

Matt had plans to actually take his sailboat out into the Santa Monica Harbor and as the boat sliced through the waves, relax in the sun. C.J. had thought that sounded wonderful , maybe a sign that he had finally found his bearings again, had become grounded again.

But when she looked into his eyes, she wondered.

"Where's Scott," he asked.

She sighed.

"Who cares," she said, "He's probably made himself a friend."

He stopped and turned to face her.

"Why do you dislike him so much?"

She didn't say anything, didn't even want to go there or do or say anything to spoil the peaceful feeling between them but his eyes wouldn't leave hers. She knew he wanted an answer from her.

"I asked you a question."

She looked up at him, sifting through the words that came up. But after looking at him again, she disregarded most of them.

"I don't trust him."

"Why?"

Her eyes darkened in that way he had learned to recognize.

"I have my reasons," she said, "and I'd rather not get into them."

She had closed the door on that subject and clearly that would be all that he would get from her. But the look on her face troubled him.

They reached her car and she turned to look at him before getting inside. She smiled and the troubled look she had been carrying disappeared again.

"Take care of yourself," she said, "and if you need anything…"

He nodded and suddenly she put her arms around him, and he reciprocated and closed his eyes as a hint of her cologne hit him. Her body molded into his and he suddenly found himself not wanting to let go.

But he did and when they separated, she kept her hands on his waist and kissed him softly on the mouth, just like a friend would, and then smiled at him.

"See you around…"

She got into her car and put on her seatbelt, before she pulled out of the parking space. He had wanted to say something to stop her from leaving him but words escaped him. So much remained within him to figure out He watched her car drive away until it merged into the traffic flow of Sunset Blvd and was gone.

He turned around and saw Scott lurching out of the bar, alone for a change. His friend came up to him but Matt just looked at him carefully remembering C.J.'s words.

"What's up," Scott asked him.

Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Nothing…heading home," he said, "I thought you would have left."

Scott smiled.

"I had a couple offers," he said, "but I didn't want to leave you here. I've been worried about you Matt. Everyone at the office has been concerned about these…moods of yours."

"I've been taking time off," Matt said, "but it's only temporary."

Scott put his hands up.

"Hey it's your decision boss, but maybe you should think about taking some more time off, go take a trip or a cruise or something."

Matt thought about that as he had a lot in recent days but he had so much to do here in L.A. Cases piling up, contracts and merger acquisitions to be signed, he really couldn't just pick up and leave everyone in a lurch.

"I mean you look a little tired," Scott said, "When's the last time you took a vacation, went on a road trip?"

Matt couldn't even remember because he had been very busy working in the past year.

"If I could take time off, maybe I'd join you on that road trip," Scott said, "Maybe we could do Vegas or something…"

Matt shook his head.

"I'm coming back to the office next week to catch up on everything I missed."

"It's all the way that you left it," Scott said, "I've made sure everyone's picked up the slack so why don't you take some more time off?"

Maybe he should, Matt thought, after all, he could take off for a while and everything would still continue, the work would get done after all the company and his investigations firm were in good hand especially with C.J. and Roy handling things.

And when he came back fully refreshed and recharged, everything would be waiting for him again as normal.

He felt energized just thinking about heading out of town, maybe traveling around the world and repaying his last favor to Too-Mean…

But then his sense of responsibility began to kick in again. That and something else, the thought of leaving C.J. who he would really miss. After all the time he had spent with Roy on the run and away from his best friend had been so difficult, he hadn't been able to wait to see her again.

But she'd go on with her life and be waiting when he came back a much more whole person than he felt right now. Yes, Scott's suggestion definitely required more thought because he felt he already had one foot out the door.

"See you later…unless you want to hit the tennis courts tomorrow."

"No, I'm going sailing in the harbor tomorrow," Matt answered as he reached his own car.

Scott shrugged and said goodbye before walking away. Matt watched him wondering what C.J had been trying so hard not to tell him about his college friend.

C.J. headed on home, leaving the top of her convertible down. She had gone through cars so quickly this year, crashing one in the Arizonan desert on a road trip and then having an extortionist blow another up and if it hadn't been for Matt's quick thinking, she would have been in it. She worried so much about him, but she couldn't show it because if she did, he'd withdraw even further.

Obviously this aborted wedding had hit him harder than anyone thought but she sensed it had gone even deeper than that. Something had wrenched a hole deep inside her best friend and she felt helpless in her inability to help him.

She turned onto a street lined with trees noticing that the traffic had gotten light. She flipped on some music, soft jazz and it wafted upward causing her heartbeat to settle down after her night at the club. It had been fun to spend time with two of her closest friends that she saw rarely these days and having Matt show up had been an unexpected bonus. Her heart had skipped beats when she had seen him approaching. She had felt so foolish when she had admitted to Matt on Roy's prompting that she had been jealous of his wedding. He had tried to rationalize it as a side effect of their deep friendship and that it would be his turn to feel that way when she walked down the aisle.

But he had misread her because when she had mulled her feelings about him marrying Elizabeth or him getting married period, she had realized that for a brief second, she hadn't wanted anyone to be there but her. Then she had chided herself for feeling for something that could and would never be. He would never harbor the same feelings for her that she did for him. She had learned to accept that as fact when he hadn't even responded to her declaration of love while he had been a fugitive. Of course, she had been bleeding from a bullet wound not too long after that and his priority had been to save her but months had gone by and her words somehow stood between them.

Not that she would take them back even if she could.

She turned into her neighborhood and she felt sadness grab her. Because she knew that Matt was going to pull even further away and nothing she could do or say would stop that. That he might even decide to pack up and leave L.A. and then would he disappear into the world outside? If he did that, she would miss him more than she could ever tell him.

Suddenly, up in front of her mind popped that little girl. The one with the soft curly dark hair and sparkling eyes that looked so familiar. For a moment, C.J. thought she was in front of her and stepped on the brakes. In front of her a car had narrowly missed broadsiding her after running a red light. She sat in her car hyperventilating for a second and then realized she had stopped in traffic and slowly moved her car through the intersection.

If it hadn't been for…but no, she had grown used to seeing that particular little girl. She still had the image of the child etched in her mind as she continued to drive home.

The two men left the club after leaving a hefty tab for the bartender. They had accomplished what they had come here to do and would be leaving town soon. But they would be coming back. One of them walked while talking on a cell phone.

"We're going to the airport in the morning and flying up to Seattle….we'll see you shortly. She came to the club with a couple of her friends and the man showed up, the one who's our biggest obstacle…no that Prescow guy said he's working on that…then we'll be ready to move…okay talk to you when we get there…"

Cortez clicked off his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"So how'd you like our night out," he asked.

The other man shrugged.

"Not my taste in music," he said, "It's going to be good to get back to the compound."

Cortez nodded and the two men reached the car.

"She seems like a really nice woman," the younger man said.

Cortez shrugged.

"It doesn't matter," he said, "We have a job to do and we're going to do it. At least she had a chance to have a little fun because she's not going to be having where she's going."

The other man nodded and stepped into the car, remembering another young woman, elegant in frame with long flowing dark hair. A woman he only remembered when when she had kissed him goodbye before he joined the army.

"This isn't getting to you is it," Cortez said, "Because I can always get someone else."

The other man shook his head.

"I can handle it," he said, "After all that's what he hired me to do."

Cortez accepted that and started the ignition and put the car in reverse. They left the parking lot to head down Sunset Blvd and as they drove, he looked at the bright lights that whizzed on by, so different from the village that had raised him thousands of miles away.

During nights like this when he was reminded of the ugliness of the world, were the times that Antonio dreamed of home.


End file.
